[Advaita-l] Acceptance of the validity of shruti is only *faith*

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On 5/19/07, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >Dear Abhilash Shatryji,
> >
> >Suppose Sri Srinivasa Murthyji says 'yes' to your querry, would you believe
> >him?  If not it becomes clear you do not believe him even before you wrote
> >him the question.  If the answer is yes, of course, your question was
> >superfluous!
> >
> >Regards,
> >Anbu
>
> Although you have addressed this to Abhilash Sastry, let me step in for a
> moment here. I think you are missing the point. It is not a question of one
> person believing or disbelieving another. The question is, "in what sense do
> we believe Sruti?"
>
> "Sruti reminds of us truths about our own self, which are to be realized by
> oneself" - thus far, we are making a statement about the nature of Sruti.
> Others are free to agree or disagree with this, based on their own belief
> systems. When we further say that these truths "are to be cognized by
> adopting methodologies as prescribed by Sruti only" that calls for an a
> priori belief in Sruti and its teaching.
>

And of course, this is exactly what the Christians say about the
bible. The bible really teaches the truth about your self, which is
that you should surrender to God who is completely different from you
and your Lord!

Rama